Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Carpe Diem

Seize the day.



Back in the states, I could only think of doing one thing: resting my weary eyes. Meanwhile, Adam immediately returned to the carp waters he fishes almost every day. That is until one day, I decided to head back into the fray.



The transition was a little overwhelming at first. I went from crystal clear flats and sandy bottoms to a partially flooded pond with zero visibility. Golden ghosts have a habit of disappearing in most water, especially when its the chocolate variety. I was rusty, to say the least.


Adam struck first with a perfect stalk along the bank, his fly line never touching the water. Sixteen feet of fluorocarbon laid stretched over foliage, rocks, and goose shit and a fly touched down on a dinner plate, where it slowly descended and met its target. Line peeled off his reel and his Superfine trout bum bent in half.


I was next on deck and found a bank muncher near a pipe pumping runoff from the city. The cast had to be on his nose. Thankfully, I was granted a 2nd and 3rd cast without him spooking before I finally hooked up.



After that fish, we went our separate ways. Adam fished on one side of the lake, while I was on the other end and side. I found a pod of feeding fish that had moved into a very shallow flat that they normally do not feed on.





I was casting to shadows, bubbles, and the occasional tail protruding through the murk. It was a guessing game, reading the body language of the fish. I got two. 



As the fog ascended into the air and evaporated before our very eyes, the fishing slowed to a hault. Our morning glory fading, we transitioned to another spot, where the fish are even tougher to coax on fly. Adam hooked a good fishing, pushing 20 lbs. on his 4 wt. Superfine. He was in his second layer of backing before he knew it, before the fish broke him off on some unseen structure.




We ended our day, on a series of ponds near Adam's house. I spooked several nice fish before I resigned to fooling around in the 90 degree heat. Adam landed several small fish, the nicest of which was landed in the only spot I couldn't get a picture.


It was nice to get back out into some freshwater after a month of salt kicking my butt.

We are back in business.

7 comments:

Feather Chucker said...

Dude, you are the man. You seem to able to catch anything.

Pat Cohen said...

excellent carping...love the rubber lips

testflycarpin said...

Quite a change in venue! The terms culture shock come to mind. With such a quick back to back which do you think is harder, carp or bones? Havent fished for bonefish yet and curious if all the carpin will really help that much when I get a chance.

Mark said...

thanks guys,

carp are harder to catch

finding the bonefish is the hardest part, feeding them is relatively easy

Mark said...

oh and congrats on your victory

Terminal tackle said...

Ho my god I can't believe

testflycarpin said...

Thanks Mark, winning was fun. Hopefully someday I will get to try a bone/carp back to back and see for myself. Pretty cool.